Mr. Ronan Brady:

I wish to very briefly add that the Irish State and the Turkish state were both born around the same time in the 1920s and that is not the only link between us. I wish to stress the link because I know how it is being played out in Turkey when criticism comes from abroad. It is being presented as some kind of infringement of Turkish independence and integrity. We are both - Turks and Irish people - signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights, and that means we are co-guarantors of that and that we have a right to criticise failures of human rights in Turkey, just as the Turks have the right to criticise us. They may well have genuine criticisms to make about this country. What I wish to stress, and it has been specifically raised by Deputy Crowe, is the newspaper Cumhuriyet, which is being accused of being in support of Cemaat, the Gülenist organisation, and of being involved in the coup in so far as it is, and also of being in support of the PKK – the Kurdish guerrilla army. If I could translate that into an Irish context, it is a bit like accusing The Irish Timesof being responsible for what happened in the North, in that by quoting the IRA it was said to be responsible for it. It is a bit like putting The Irish Timesin jail because it has infringed justice by trying to quote from an illegal political party. It is quite absurd. This is one of the most respected newspapers in Turkey and it is being accused of involvement for merely doing what journalists should do.

The Government and the Members of the Dáil should do the utmost they can to raise this through international institutions such as the European Union. We also appeal to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Flanagan, to read carefully what we have said and to put the maximum amount of pressure on our friends and colleagues in Turkey so as to protect the journalists.